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. J!g^!^4?.?Z!^LlS^I - ^JJL- 15 I^EADEH....
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NAPOLEONIC BOOKS. Lettres de Napoleon I....
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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A Friend In Need. A Friend In Need; A Ro...
tion for him ; and joined the bride from whom he had been parted . In time a male child was lorn . Parental instincts drove tlie couple to a violation of the unholy bond they had entered into . They fled , tracked by the minions of the marquis . Too late the unhappy Jules sought the grace of his ferocious parent . He was repulsed with insult , and charged with breach of faith . Foreseeing some attempt on his father ' s part to enforce the covenant , the young mother attached to the person of her infant a packet containing proofs of his identity and legitimacy . It was well and timely done . The next day he was
torn from her under circumstances of powerful interest . The reader will hardly believe tliat the cruel marquis had no hand in this ; but the child had been , in fact , seized by the emissaries of the Irish Earl of Glenarm , who , rinding himself in precisely the same family difficulty as old De Harleville , and being much such another ruthless character , took the same kind of measures to enforce filial obedience . Maurice Hartigan , his gamekeeper , had been sent to France to possess himself of the Jieir of the Lisdillons , and had stolen the young Perignon by mistake . Hartigan's wife possessed herself of the
identifying packet , aud kept it secret from even her husband . The child was brought under their roof , and the wicked earl from time to time gloated over him as the symbol of revenge . In course of time , the youth became possessed of the certificates of his 'birth , but although he had been , instructed in the French language by a priestl y confederate of his grandfather , he remained a believer that he was the rightful heir to the Glenarm title , and that the said documents contained the proofs . It was by no
means agreeaoie to the earl that me country should ring with the vainglorious claims . of a scapegrace , and accordingly , when the supposed George Hartigan was oil the confines of manhood , his lordship renewed the atrocious persecution with which lie had dogged , his infancy . The details of a prolonged strife between these supposed near relatives , with memoirs of various subordinate actors , fill a whole volume , and lead up to , or rather back to , the garden rencontre of the first chapter .
We have told how Miss Vandcleur assisted the fugitive . She little thought of the wretchedness she had accepted with his trust . She retired to rest but knew no sleep . Housed by the barking of her dog , she , like a true heroine , descended the staircasej hurried from room to room in search of some intruder , and at lust finds lierself , of all places in the world , in the pantry , and face to . face with the liandsonie stranger . In one hand lie held a glittering steel— -it was a carving-knife ; in the other he brandished a shapeless mass—it was a fragment of a loaf . The maiden's courage returned , while Geoi'gc Hartigan supped well , and poured into her romantic ear a fallacious theory of his own rights and wrongs based upou the contents of the packet . Unsophisticated Miss Yandeleur fell in love .
They arc soon affianced , but as the persecution of his lordship abates not , the course of their affections is by no means smooth . Priests , peasants and Laura Vandeleur ' s dog " Bully , " all play parts in the interminable tanglo of the plot which the reader must unravel for himself if lie once opens the book , for although , as we observed in our opening remarks , A Friend vi Need is neither the work of a practised writer nor of a very thoughtful observer , drags heavily in parts , and contains notable incongruities ; it is still the work , we imagine , of a fresh and prolific fancy , which after a good deal
more practice will produce better things . The story concludes with n refreshing surprise . Instead of the hero taking Laura to wife , she becomes Madame Itegimild Dcvines , aud he , as Count Gustave de PeYignon , marries Miss Rosalinda Vining . We have traced the principal characters to the altar ' s foot , but as to the Vinings aiulthcDcviiics , the Earl of Gleuurm , and Captain Vandcleur , we must refer the curious to the book itself . Their
appearance and functions on the stage of the novel arc steeped in the seething broth of the author ' s romantic fancy , and ligurc in some scenes of considerable power . The strugglo for life between Maurice liartigmi and his supposed son in the black basaltic caves of Lurnc , when a certain Father O'Mahony , niter long aiding'in the cruelties indicted upon the hem by Lord Glcnnrm , appears as his deliverer from imminent death , is as powerfully written as any passage in the book . On the whole , A Friend in Need fully justifies the title of " Romance" which the author lias , perhaps from a duo sense of modesty , applied to it .
. J!G^!^4?.?Z!^Lls^I - ^Jjl- 15 I^Eadeh....
. J ! g ^!^ 4 ? . ? Z !^ LlS ^ I - ^ JJL- I ^ EADEH . 841
Napoleonic Books. Lettres De Napoleon I....
NAPOLEONIC BOOKS . Lettres de Napoleon I . . par ; 8 . L'Antichita dei Bonaparti . Di F . Stefano . Venice Histoire de ZJImperatrice Josephine . Par M . Joseph Aubenas . Paris . [ Second Notice . ] The Napoleon correspondence , which we noticed ast week , is , in the course of the present month , to be published in a popular form , with the avowed intention of propagating more extensively than has hitherto been done , and among all classes of society , the hero-worship of the founder of the present
imperial dynasty . The costly edition has already been circulated among the members of the Imperial family and the wealthy courtiers of the Empire ; and portions have been allowed to transpire from time to time through the columns of the Moniteur , as foretaste of the literary or historical feast which is being prepared for the public and as whets to their appetite . But if we may judge from the tone of general opinion , the significant silence of the independent portion of the French press , and the indifference of the public , the hopes raised upon the publication of this correspondence are likely to be signally disappointed . It would , indeed , be a curious illustration of retributive justice—a striking example of the sure though slow vengeance
ot that terrible and inexorable Nemesis winch we are taught unremittingly pursues human errors and strikes down the loftiest reputations when built up upon wrong—if the correspondence of Napoleon L , given to the world by the inheritor of his name and empire , for the purpose of increasing the influence of his fame and consolidating the throne of his dynasty , should produce entirely opposite results . Such , however , it is feared , will bethe case by many who are the warmest , if not the most demonstrative , supporters of Napoleon III . During the Restoration and subsequently , the genius and marvellous . deeds of the hero of Marengo , the victor of Austerlitz ; and the martyr of St . Helena were made the themes of national
lowers , to be of the earth less earthy , and seemed gradually to throw off the frailties of mankind , until at last it was not deemed irreverent to represent his apotheosis orb the dome of the new christianised church of St . Genevieve . Having-unconscientiously and unwillingly paved the way for the government so much detested by the Orleanists and Republicans , these parties are now , perhaps , fated to behold the work of their hands undone , the prestige and influence of Napoleon I . weakened , iff not destroyed , by the Second Empire . The great magic of his name was chiefly due to the apparent superhuman qualities with which the great EniDeror was believed to he
endowed . His wlQ . was law , and his slightest wishes still hold binding , because he was fancied to be superior to all other men . But now , when the Government of the successor to his name and throne publish to the world tie history of his frailties and errors , slowing him { stripped of imperial glitter , and brought out of the uncertain and half-mystic light of far off battle-fields , the heroic figure becomes reduced to human proportions , and the idol of half a century sinks down into a mere beacou-mark of history . The accuracy of the correspondence , and the friendly or adulatory purpose of its publication .
cannot be doubted . Consequently , the work which is about to be issued by M . Henri Plon ( his present Majesty ' s printers ) for the correct information of the people will be the standard by which Napoleon I . will henceforward be judged . That the result will be the dispersion of many illusions—the sweeping of many cobwebs from the national mind—cannot be doubted . The military genius of Napoleon I . may , perhaps , shine forth more brightly , but he will cease to bethe idol of civil and educated France , for his character , in no other respects , will be brought down to its true level , whiles the reputation of his opponents will be proportionately enhanced .
In . order to rightly understand and fully appreciate the great and silent revolution which is taking place with respect to the popular idol in the public mind , it is necessary to include in this notice , besides the Correspondence of Napoleon I ., two other works which have recently been , published at the instigation , or at least with the sanction , of the present Government . They are L'Antichita dei Bonaparti , by Frederico Stefani , with an introduction , by Luciano Beretta , published in . Venice , and the Histoire de Vlmpe ' ratrica Josephine ; by M . Joseph Aubenas , published in Paris . All three works have
praise in order to be used as weapons of offence against the existing Government . The Orleanist conspirators against the elder fils de St . Louis , and the republicans united to spread abroad the admiration aud worship of one whom in secret they both hated and feared , hoping , under the shadow of his great name , to creep into powers After the wroiig-headedness of Charles X . had made way for the advent to the throne of his " faithful cousin " —lanieilleure des republiques—the republican party still pursued their old tactics against their former allies and present foes , in the hopes of achieving success in their turn . But thev had to contend success m their turn . But they had to contend
been , extensively reviewed in the Moniteur ; ia the ordinary laudatory style , by M . Rapetti ; who appears to hold the office of literary eulogist of the Empire , aud have thereby received the greatest publicity that it was possible to give them . The first to be noticed is the " Historical Study on the Antiquity of tlie Bonapartes . " The fact that it should have been written by Italians , and published in an Austrian , possession , is held to be of significant import . But it may be doubted , if the attempt to prove the ancient lineage and noble descent of the husband of a daughter of the imperial
with one whom they had initiated into the secrets of their policy and provided with the plans of their campaign . The " citizen king , " however , took the wind out of their sails by becoming the loudest in . praise of the heroic actions of Napoleon the Great , and the most prominent among the idolaters of the glory of the Empire . Louis Philippe replaced the statue of the Emperor , in historic costume , upon the Colonnc Veudoine ; he finished the arch of Imperial triumphs at the Barrteredc VEtoile , and inscribed theveon the list of victories and names of generals that had illustrated the Empire ; he filled the galleries of Versailles with gorgeous palatine's
house of Hapsburg will revise such recollections as will tend to cement the Austro-French alliance . For the descendants of the Ceesars aud their people have always looked upou tlie marriage of Marie Louise with the first emperor of the French as a sacrifice to the necessities of the state , and as a monument of their national humiliation . On the other hand , the numerous classes of French society—from the new uoblc or suddenly enriched bourgeois , to the humble tiller of the soil—who without being revolutionists , are welded to the great principles ot the revolution , look upon this elaborate endeavour to invest the Emperor with the prestige of ancient nobility as an . attempt to separate liim , from the revolution of which he professed to fce the result , and which he
more or less apocryphal , of Imperial battles ; he sent his son to bring buck from St . Helena the mortal remains of the enemy of his race amidst unheard-of pomp and inagniticence ; and he spared no labour , no sacrifice ot self-respect , to establish le ciilte des soucejtirs de I'Empire . The object of this policy was threefold—to create popular force that might be wielded , when required , against the Legitimists , to deprive the republicans of the main element of their strength among the uneducated classes , and to rally to himself that party which sighed for " the return of the Eagle , " by placing himself before the public as the restorer of Inlpcriul traditions aud the realiser
was accustomed to state it was his manifest destiny to root in French soil and consolidate . To make the Emperor a nobleman by birth , is to place him in the ranks of those who are the least liked by the nation , ami against whom the efforts of the revolution were mainly directed . It is to make him yokefellow with the Marquis de Carabas in bearing the weight of popular hatred and ridicule , for it is to revive and give consistency to the doctrine that the arts of war and government are the inheritance of the nobility . How obnoxious to the French nation arc these pretensions to exclusive privileges will be readily understood when it is remembered that every soldier believes ho carries the baton de mur £ * dial in his knapsack , and that every Spicier fancies himself competent to govern the state . According to the Autichita dei Bonaparli of Signori Stefani and Beretta ( "who arc not the first and original discoverers of the nobility of the
Bonnof Napoleonic ideas . At no period was the heroworship of Napoleon I . carried to such an extent as during the period which elapsed from 1830 to 1848 . The conqueror of hulf Europe loomed all the more grandly in the public eye as his epoch became all the more remote , anil as his history wore more the appearance of tradition . . His individuality was swallowed up in the representative of the glories and reverses of France , and was lost in the type of her popular force . To worship his memory was an act of patriotism , a protest against foreign influence , and an assertion of national independence . As the histories that treated of his errors wcro held to bo false aud mere inventions of his enemies , the Emperor grew by degrees in the imagination of his fol-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 841, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_21081858/page/17/
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